


Darkness Within

by Loopstagirl



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Strong Dub-con/non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 17:29:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1866300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loopstagirl/pseuds/Loopstagirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bringing Arthur back from the dead had come with a price. One Merlin knew he had to suffer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkness Within

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights belong to their respective owners.  
> Written for the Camelot Land prompt: "I'll follow you into the dark".

Merlin knew something had changed.

On the surface, Arthur appeared to be the same man he had always been. Stronger, in fact, for the kingdom believed their monarch to be gone and then he had appeared from the ashes like a phoenix rising to rule again. They thought he had been lost, perhaps taken captive or injured. They didn’t know he had actually died. Merlin shivered as the thought crossed his mind, instantly curling tighter into the protective sweep of Arthur’s arm.

He knew for as long as he lived he would never forget the sensation of feeling Arthur take his last shuddering breath before falling still. He didn’t know how long he had stood on the edge of that lake, unable to commit his king to Avalon despite knowing he had to.

Merlin knew it was his fault Arthur had changed.

He hadn’t been able to let him go and now he was the one paying the price. He was the only one to know about the darkness that had entered Arthur’s soul, slowly caressing his mind and twisting his thinking. Arthur wasn’t aware it was happening, he thought he just had a stronger stance on things. Gwen might have noticed, but Arthur remained a perfect gentleman to her. They remained Camelot’s strong King and Queen and the people hoped an heir would soon make itself apparent. Merlin wasn’t sure.

Arthur was fulfilling his duties as a husband, slipping into Gwen’s bed in the dead of night and politely making love to her under the cover of darkness. Merlin knew Gwen still took pleasure from it, but Arthur didn’t. He was holding himself back, restricting the darkness for when he was alone with Merlin. Whether the Queen knew what happened when she retired to her own chambers, Merlin had no idea. But Gwen certainly pretended not to notice the predatory look in her husband’s eyes when he watched Merlin at dinner, curling his fingers around the bare skin on Merlin’s wrist when he poured the wine; possessive and dominant.

For when the sun went down and they were alone, Arthur would let that darkness show. His thrusts were hard and cruel, his grip biting and hard. Merlin didn’t know what he hated more; the fact that he let Arthur use him in such a punishing way or the fact that his body seemed to almost like the pain it was being subjected to.

He had once tried to fight back. He used magic to push Arthur away, asking what he was doing. Arthur had just laughed in his face before glancing down at Merlin’s erection and claiming he was just doing what Merlin wanted him too. Merlin had been stunned, too angry at his own body for betraying him that he wasn’t able to hold the magic and Arthur had pressed in from behind even while the wall in front had crushed his chest.

Merlin didn’t tell anyone.

This was his fault. He was the one to have brought Arthur back, to allow the darkness to enter his soul. Therefore it was his duty to bear the consequences. He would accept the torn bedding and the blood if it meant Arthur was the ideal king during the day. There were moments when he would slip; an execution ordered that would have previously just been imprisonment, harsher penalties delivered to those who didn’t truly deserve them. But no one would question him. The kingdom had almost just been torn apart; why would it be a bad thing that Arthur was taking a stricter stance?

Merlin sighed as he tried to detangle himself from Arthur’s possessive grip. He managed it in the end, he always did. Naked, he padded across the room and flipped open the book he had been reading before Arthur had thrown him onto the bed. Arthur believed he was studying magic for a way to help secure the kingdom. It was ironic really; the king still believed his lies. But Merlin had to know what he had done.

For Arthur had died.

Merlin had been unable to let him go, seeking out dark and dangerous magic to bring the king back. He told Gaius they had made it just in time but he wasn’t sure the physician believed him. Not considering a ring of bruises had still been obvious around Merlin’s neck from where Arthur had almost strangled him the night before.

But he couldn’t admit it. How could he accept that he had crossed a line and the price Arthur was now paying by letting a darkness consume his soul; a darkness he couldn’t fight? Even if he was aware of it, Merlin knew that Arthur thought it was making him stronger. After all, no one could deny that Camelot was stronger than ever.

Merlin had just found a page that looked as if it might hold some information when the candle was suddenly blown out in a sharp puff of breath. Merlin turned, already knowing it would be Arthur standing there.

“You left me side,” the king accused and Merlin winced when he thought of the order Arthur had growled the night before that Merlin was to never go.

“I was just… getting some water,” Merlin lied, reaching for the goblet on the other side of the table and giving a trademark grin he wasn’t sure Arthur would see in the dark. It didn’t matter whether Arthur saw it or not, his reaction was the same.

He snatched the jug out of Merlin’s hand and threw it across the room. It hit the stone wall with a loud clatter. It would have brought the guards running if Arthur hadn’t already ordered Merlin to soundproof the room the very first night he returned. Merlin had hoped it would be because they were finally going to talk about his magic and Arthur wasn’t ready for anyone to overhear just yet.

He had no idea it was to block out his screams as Arthur had stolen his virginity in one harsh thrust.

“You’re lying,” Arthur snarled, grabbing Merlin’s arm. Merlin knew not to fight. He had already survived one round tonight, he had to just let Arthur get on with it because then it would be over. Arthur jerked him away from the table and Merlin only just had enough time to brace himself before his back hit the wall. The rough scratch of the stone seemed dull in comparison to the biting and bruising fingers Arthur was groping him with.

The king pressed in close, his leg nudging Merlin’s apart. Merlin groaned at the close sensation of skin on skin. Part of him loved the fact that Arthur stopped holding himself back when they were together, and another part of him loathed the fact that he was thinking like that. He should be trying to find a way to bring Arthur back, hating him for what he had done. Not feeling like he was falling more in love with each day that past because this was a king who truly would unite Albion. Nothing stood in Arthur’s way anymore and Merlin loved that.

After all, the dragon had claimed he couldn’t hate what made him whole. Feeling the harsh breathing of his master on his neck as Arthur bit his shoulder made Merlin’s blood sing and a groan to escape his lips as he locked his leg around Arthur’s, wanting him closer.

Arthur’s attention returned to his lips and before Merlin knew what he had done, he had bitten down. Arthur gasped in surprise and Merlin smirked. He suddenly felt alive, as if he could conquer the world. Not only the world, but the man in front of him. Hands lifted as his fingers curled into Arthur’s hair, jerking him closer as they fought for domination in the kiss. Arthur won, simply by letting his hand curl around Merlin’s cock and immediately distracting him.

As Merlin felt his head hit the wall with a thud, he wondered what was happening to him. He had always tried to get Arthur to stop, to make the man realise this wasn’t the sort of person he was. But this time, he didn’t want to. It was as if the taste of Arthur’s blood had awoken something in him, his own darkness. He wasn’t some innocent and helpless maid who had no chance of defence.

He was the most powerful warlock to ever walk the earth.

His hands tightened in Arthur’s hair as he tilted the man’s head back, baring his throat so that Merlin could suck on his pulse point. Arthur growled, a low and primitive noise that betrayed his surprise at the fact Merlin was giving as good as he got. Arthur gripped his arms, pulling him away from the wall and throwing him back on the bed.

Merlin watched with hooded eyes as Arthur approached, waiting until the man had entered him before rolling them over. Both gasped as the sensation, but Merlin didn’t pull off. Instead, he started riding the king, his mouth open in pleasure.

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this alive.

Their harsh pants were the only noise to fill the air until Merlin found himself shuddering to completion.

“I feel you,” he snarled before he toppled over the edge and into the darkness.

Waking up the next morning, Merlin groaned as the way his head was pounding and his stomach rolling. The primitive desire that had awoken in him the night before had disappeared and he sat up carefully from where his head had been cushioned on Arthur’s chest. Silently, he slipped from the bed and returned to the book he had been studying the night before, knowing he had just come across something.

He had.

He had unleashed a darkness, a primitive desire in Arthur, an almost animalistic nature when he had brought him back. Arthur was holding it in check during the day, only revealing it in odd slips of temper, but was letting it unleash during the night. The darkness ran in Arthur’s blood and Merlin knew that taste of it he had got last night had transferred some of it to him.

Merlin was just glad the effects were not permanent for him, for he dreaded to think what he would do if he had that darkness coiling within considering the magic at his disposal. He had to find a way to free Arthur from it, to allow him to be the man he had been before. How could Arthur enjoy something that he had no say in, that had been forced upon him the way he forced himself upon Merlin night after night?

The warlock quickly dressed, knowing that if Arthur awoke before the servants were due, then Merlin would be in for a repeat performance of the day before. Arthur ordered others to serve him now, all who averted their gazes when they saw the obvious signs of what Merlin was now being used for. For some reason, Merlin felt no shame in it. Possibly because he thought he deserved everything Arthur threw at him because he was the one responsible for creating this side of him. For now, however, he couldn’t think of that.

He had to get to the library. There had to be writings somewhere about what he could do to free Arthur from the darkness. He knew that if the texts were not found here, then it was hopeless. They might exist in provinces outside of Camelot, but Merlin was no fool – despite what the majority of the court believed. He knew precisely how Arthur would react to Merlin suggesting that he travelled for a little while. Merlin knew if he should say something like that, Arthur would literally tie him to the bed.

Despite his magic making it almost impossible for Arthur to truly bind him, Merlin had no intention of finding himself guarded and watched. He just had to hope the book was present in the library.

But even when he was lost in the mass volumes containing hints of dark magic, Merlin found another thought beginning to form in the back of his mind. Something that would make it far easier to handle Arthur like this. He had felt powerful and strong with the taste of Arthur’s blood on his lips. While he was looking through the volumes for something to cure Arthur, Merlin also found himself glancing at spells that would enable him to draw blood from Arthur without truly hurting the king.

After all, the only way he knew he could survive this was if he could fight back. In order to fight against the blackness that was staining Arthur’s soul, Merlin knew he had to embrace it himself a little bit. He had always sworn that he would follow Arthur to the ends of the earth if necessary.

Now, it seemed that he was preparing to follow him into the darkness if that was what it took to survive this and ultimately save him.

Merlin just hoped that he was strong enough to resist being consumed entirely by the darkness. For as surely as a unrestricted Arthur was strengthening Camelot and Albion, Merlin knew should he share the some drive, Albion would fall far quicker than Arthur could build it.


End file.
